Azerbaijan builds ‘smart villages’ in areas liberated from occupation

As Azerbaijan prepares to resettle hundreds of thousands of its citizens in the Karabakh region liberated from Armenian occupation, it has adopted a new concept of development: “smart villages”.

Envisioning small communities using cutting-edge technologies such as digital connectivity, automation and renewable energy to maximize economic development, this idea has become popular around the world.

The Azerbaijani government had tentatively researched the idea before the war. In the State Program for the Socio-Economic Development of the Regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan 20192023, it was decided to create two pilot “smart villages”.

In February, President

İlham Aliyev said that the first smart village project would be implemented in Ağalı village in Zangilan district. In an interview with Turkish media in September, Aliyev said the first displaced citizens would return to a pilot smart village in Zangilan “at the end of this year or the beginning of next year”. On October 17, he officially laid the foundation for another smart village in the Fuzuli district.

The Ministry of Agriculture announced that smart villages will switch to agriculture on the basis of “modern technologies and joint management and control”, but the concept will go beyond simple farming methods. “The concept consists of smart street lighting, cold and heat resistant houses, management of domestic waste, installation of hydro and solar power plants, and biogas energy,” the ministry said in a statement to the Turan news agency.

The agricultural park to be established within the scope of the project, in which Turkish companies are also involved, will include crop fields, greenhouses, cattle farms and orchards. Crop, fertilization and irrigation works will be implemented with innovative technologies in the agricultural park, where modern agricultural vehicles, including unmanned vehicles, will be used.

Aliyev said at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in September that the government has spent $1.3 billion this year alone to build “smart cities and villages.” (www. eurasianet.org)